Judge Smacks Down Trump’s Investigation Into Jerome Powell

Source: The New Republic · Bias: Left

Summary

A federal judge has quashed the Justice Department’s subpoenas directed at Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.In a scathing 27-page opinion, Judge James Boasberg said Friday that the government has produced “essentially zero evidence” to substantiate its criminal case against Powell.“A mountain of evidence suggests that the Government served these subpoenas on the Board to pressure its Chair into voting for lower interest rates or resigning,” Boasberg wrote. “On the other side of the scale, the Government has produced essentially zero evidence to suspect Chair Powell of a crime.”Donald Trump’s myriad tweets railing against the Federal Reserve chief—and their clear correlation to the DOJ’s probe—did not help the government’s case.“The President spent years essentially asking if no one will rid him of this troublesome Fed Chair,” the judge continued. “He then suggested a specific line of investigation into him, which had been proposed by a political appointee with no role in law enforcement, who hinted that it could be a way to remove Powell. The President’s appointed prosecutor promptly complied.”“Those facts strongly imply that this investigation was launched for an improper purpose, as were the resulting subpoenas,” Boasberg wrote.U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro, a Trump appointee whose office is leading the investigation, promised to appeal the decision. The judge “has neutered the grand jury’s ability to investigate crime; as a result Jerome Powell today is ​now bathed in immunity, preventing my office from investigating the Federal Reserve,” Pirro claimed, accusing Boasberg of being an “activist judge.”“This is wrong and without legal authority,” she added.Powell has been the subject of the president’s ire for months, facing enormous Oval Office criticism for his repeated refusal to cut interest rates as Trump sees fit. The investigation was ostensibly about the cost of renovations to the Fed’s office buildings, which occurred under Powell’s stewardship but which were nonetheless wildly exaggerated by the president as pretext to attack Powell. The law mandates that the Fed be politically independent, yet Powell has argued that Trump is attempting to diminish confidence in the central bank in order to gain more influence over America’s monetary policy.“This is about whether the Fed will be able to continue to set interest rates based on evidence and economic conditions—or whether instead monetary policy will be directed by political pressure or intimidation,” Powell said in January when the subpoenas were first announced.This story has been updated.

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Judge Smacks Down Trump’s Investigation Into Jerome Powell
The New Republic

Judge Smacks Down Trump’s Investigation Into Jerome Powell

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A federal judge has quashed the Justice Department’s subpoenas directed at Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.In a scathing 27-page opinion, Judge James Boasberg said Friday that the government has produced “essentially zero evidence” to substantiate its criminal case against Powell.“A mountain of evidence suggests that the Government served these subpoenas on the Board to pressure its Chair into voting for lower interest rates or resigning,” Boasberg wrote. “On the other side of the scale, the Government has produced essentially zero evidence to suspect Chair Powell of a crime.”Donald Trump’s myriad tweets railing against the Federal Reserve chief—and their clear correlation to the DOJ’s probe—did not help the government’s case.“The President spent years essentially asking if no one will rid him of this troublesome Fed Chair,” the judge continued. “He then suggested a specific line of investigation into him, which had been proposed by a political appointee with no role in law enforcement, who hinted that it could be a way to remove Powell. The President’s appointed prosecutor promptly complied.”“Those facts strongly imply that this investigation was launched for an improper purpose, as were the resulting subpoenas,” Boasberg wrote.U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro, a Trump appointee whose office is leading the investigation, promised to appeal the decision. The judge “has neutered the grand jury’s ability to investigate crime; as a result Jerome Powell today is ​now bathed in immunity, preventing my office from investigating the Federal Reserve,” Pirro claimed, accusing Boasberg of being an “activist judge.”“This is wrong and without legal authority,” she added.Powell has been the subject of the president’s ire for months, facing enormous Oval Office criticism for his repeated refusal to cut interest rates as Trump sees fit. The investigation was ostensibly about the cost of renovations to the Fed’s office buildings, which occurred under Powell’s stewardship but which were nonetheless wildly exaggerated by the president as pretext to attack Powell. The law mandates that the Fed be politically independent, yet Powell has argued that Trump is attempting to diminish confidence in the central bank in order to gain more influence over America’s monetary policy.“This is about whether the Fed will be able to continue to set interest rates based on evidence and economic conditions—or whether instead monetary policy will be directed by political pressure or intimidation,” Powell said in January when the subpoenas were first announced.This story has been updated.

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